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Mumbai: The central bank has set up an eight-member panel, headed by a professor from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), to study the opportunities, risks and challenges posed by quantum technology in the financial sector.

Anil Prabhakar, a professor of IIT Madras, will head the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) committee on quantum computing, which Mint Road said has application in areas such as portfolio optimisation, risk assessment and macroeconomic modelling.

“Quantum Technology represents a paradigm shift compared with traditional systems as it leverages the principles of quantum mechanics, such as superposition and entanglement,” the RBI said.

However, it also warned that the technology could pose risks to existing cryptographic systems.

To address these concerns, the RBI has formed an expert committee for a Quantum Secure and Adaptive Financial Ecosystem (Q-SAFE).

The members include Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO, NPCI; Sunil Kumar, additional secretary, department of science and technology; Satish Rao Nagesh, DMD, State Bank of India; Suvendu Pati, CGM, fintech department, RBI; Vinayak Godse, CEO, Data Security Council of India; Manoj Kumar Jain, Scientist-G and group coordinator, ministry of electronics and information technology; and L Venkata Subramaniam, Quantum India servant leader and former IBM Quantum India head.
The committee has been asked to submit its report within six months of its first meeting.According to the RBI, the panel will review the financial sector’s preparedness for quantum-related risks, identify systems most vulnerable to cyber threats, study global regulatory practices and assess and recommend a roadmap and framework for the safe adoption of quantum applications in finance.

Mumbai: The government’s Offer for Sale in Central Bank of India was subscribed 1.28 times on Monday, the last day of the two-day issue. The retail investor category received bids for 14.1% of the shares on offer on the second day of the issue. On Friday, institutional investors had placed bids for 76.86 crore shares against an offer size of 65.17 crore shares, translating to a subscription of 1.17 times the shares in the category, as per exchange data. Against 7.24 crore shares reserved for the retail category, bids were received for just about 1.02 crore shares. Overall, the OFS received cumulative bids for 9.24 crore shares against the total offer size of 7.24 crore shares. On Friday, the government said it wanted to sell up to an 8% stake, including a 4% base issue and an equivalent greenshoe option, in the OFS. The floor price was set at ₹31 per share, a discount of about 8.6% to Thursday’s closing price of ₹33.91.